Faculty Lecture on IP and new trade and investment agreements

Reconciling Intellectual Property with new trade and investment agreements: should Europe lead the way?

Investor-State Dispute-Settlement (ISDS) is an extremely powerful yet unknown area of international law and policy. It can limit the actual ability of the EU and its Member States to regulate areas of major concern to users of the Internet, including the introduction of limitations and exceptions to copyright, or the protection of privacy and personal data. As many ISDS provisions, such as those contained in CETA (the new free trade agreement between Canada and the EU), have recently come under attack or are being negotiated, a principled approach is needed to keep the Internet as safe and open a space as possible. Parallels with trade law can inform the proper approach to be taken, in particular the right to regulate and safeguards for the protection of fundamental rights.

Prof. Gervais is Professor of Law at Vanderbilt University, and Director of the Vanderbilt Intellectual Property Program. He is one of the world’s leading scholars on the intersection of intellectual property and international trade, and is currently visiting the Institute for Information Law (IViR).